Goal accomplished!

After four very long years I finally did something last night that I didn't think I would do again:-)

I ran 1/2 mile.

Now, I know that is not a lot, but I've not been able to run at all since my accident almost four years ago due to hip and knee injuries. I was pleasantly surprised last night as I was running that my right knee and hip didn't twinge at all. My left still did (which is where I got the direct hit) but it wasn't sore or anything this morning which is REALLY HUGE!!!

I accomplished a goal this week that I've been working for for almost four years. Despite excruciating pain most days, I've pushed through workouts and twisty pretzel stretches in order to rebuild muscles and tendons that were damaged. Last night I got to reap a little reward for the hard work! I'm looking forwards to pushing it to 3/4 of a mile next week!

I work out at 4-5 days a week at home and then while the girls are in sign language class on Tuesday nights, we walk while we wait on them. I very cautiously tried what I thought would be the impossible last night and was just happy to see that the killer workouts I've put myself through have actually worked! :-)

It was just a reminder to me that faithfulness, diligence, and perseverance always pay off in the long run. It was a reminder that this body that God has given me is perfectly capable of healing itself if I treat it right. It reminded me that God is faithful. He has heard my pleas of "no more pain!" but has also provided me the right resources of nutrition and food to help heal what exercise can't. He is faithful.

I'm a long ways from running 5 miles a day like I used to before the accident, but it was so encouraging that the 1/2 mile I ran was EASY! I laughed and talked with my husband the whole time I did it. It barely even winded me! My killer workouts have not only strengthened my legs and knees but my heart and lungs as well!! That's an even extra plus!

God is so faithful. He gives strength to accomplish things when humanely it seems impossible. It's funny, while your working on something hard the mountain seems too high, but when you get to the top you then see that so long as you kept putting on foot in front of the other you got to the top!!

Keep putting one foot in front of the other....you're just one step away!

Summer "Anti Procrastination" Project Completions!

My sister in law over at,  www.imperfecthomemaker.com has had some super ideas on anti procrastination this summer! I've been taking her advice and getting some things done around here that I have been putting off for way too long!

The Whiteboard Easel my husband built and I painted! He did a super job!

I was able to get some awesome blue Krylon paint from Mighty Dollar for a $1...LOVE THAT!

Finished hanging the school shelf and got all the supplies organized!

Got my window shelf painted and hung and made new cafe curtains from repurposed fabric

Redid my kitchen countertops and absolutely love them! You can't see the dirt!!! YAY!

Spray painted my old wire basket in a neat "Avocado" color paint by Krylon...paid $1 for that too!! Don't the green apples look awesome in this?:-)

My World market curtains for the back hallway and living room that I got for a song on Ebay!

Do the colors not just make you happy??? They do me! I love happy curtains:-)

Finished making my "sheet" curtains for the kitchen windows. I could NOT justify spending over $150 on blinds for these three windows!!! They are odd sizes and the roller shades just don't hold up under the wear and tear on these windows. I've already been through $70 worth of roller shades the last 4 years.

Still need two more flat twin sheets to add the the one on each of the smaller windows, but we're getting there!

My very busy husband has also been working very hard the last couple of weeks building shelves out of repurposed wood in the garage for storage. When we're all done out there, I'll show you that as well! A big thank you to my sister in law who inspired me to just, as we say it where I come from, "GIT ER' DONE!"
She has a wonderful blog that you should check out for all kinds of neat ideas for the home, homeschooling, and such! Thanks ME!!

First Day!

The beginning of a new school year!

Audrey - 6th Grade!

Adalyn - 1st Grade

Caleb - "I'm just cute!"

Labor Day 2012 fun!

Here's what we did to celebrate Labor Day...

The Kings Soldier...I have NO idea why Stephen is making that face?? lol!

The Revolutionary Housewife

The Blacksmith

He has his stick! Watch out!!

The Doctor

touring the museum

Can you believe she's in first grade this year?

My dirty, sweaty, sticky little boy who just had a ball being that way!

Kings Mountain State Park was having a Militia Encampment Outdoor setup and we went! It was fun! It was neat for the girls to get to see "hand's on" some of how things worked back in the Revolutionary War Period. They will be studying this period this year during History, so this was a great way to get it started!
Caleb had a ball running around, digging in the dirt with his stick, and playing with everyone's dogs:-) He LOVES puppies!
We enjoyed having the girls friend, Kylie, with us that day! After we left the Encampment area, we went over the park and lake and let them play a while. It was SOOO hot and muggy, but they didn't care:-)

We had a great time together and it was fun to do something fun that was free! We are looking forwards to October and their Fall Festival:-) On a side note, if you would like to attend a fun fall festival  this year and you live in the NC Rutherfordton, Cleveland County area, head over to Green Creek NC for their Fall Festival this coming Saturday, September 8th! http://www.lasr.net/travel/city.php?NC+tryon+green-creek-heritage-festival&TravelTo=NC0217005&VE=Y&EventCategory=&Event_ID=NC0217005e001#.UEZAj5aQmSA

I am SO very happy that Fall is just around the corner! I've always said that I was terribly lucky to have been born in my favorite month - OCTOBER! Now, I'm NOT going to tell you how "old"I will be this October, but nevertheless, it is still my most favoritest ( I know that's not proper English...) month of the year! Maybe because the days are still somewhat warm, and the nights are PERFECT for cookouts and camping!

Speaking of camping, I get to go this year! My husband and I are taking a two night jaunt to the beautiful mountains in Cades Cove TN to camp! This will be our first trip away together in two years and we are super super excited! Camping is so cheap, but the experience of being in the Smoky Mountains is always priceless! I am very very very very (can you tell I'm excited!) about our little getaway...yeehaw! We're going to do some hiking to Abrahms Falls, tour the Loop Trail in Cades Cove and actually get to stop at all the stops we want too...lol!, read books, and cook our food over our campfire, watch the sun go down over the mountains, and probably freeze half to death doing it!!! hahahahah!!! Oh well, we don't care:-) Life would be boring if you didn't sweat half of it and freeze the other half, right? *smile*

Have a happy week and Happy "almost Fall" Month!

Monday's the day - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Is it REALLY that time of year again? *smiling, smiling*

It is hard to believe that Monday will be September 3rd and it will be our first day back to homeschooling. This year Adalyn will be in 1st grade and Audrey will be in 6th....yikes! Since when did I get old enough to be homeschooling a 6th grader??? :-)

Our school corner:-)

Our reminder to always have "JOY" in everything we do!

My reminder that each moment is precious!

 The kitchen table will be our school desk this year since I have been able to find three subjects that I can do with both girls together....NICE! They will be using the same curriculums for Bible, History, and Handwriting.
Audrey will still be doing Science and Language arts with Switched on Schoolhouse and Adalyn will be using BJU Grade 1 for all her other subjects. Both girls will be taking piano lessons from Mom this year again as well. And where does Caleb fit in all this....well, he makes his presence known without a school curriculum quite well....lol! He'll be right there in the middle of it all, tearing up toilet paper, pulling out all the tupperware again and again and again, dismantling all the videos and dvd's that he can get his hands on, and emptying the entire contents of his toy box all over the house! Yep, that's what he'll be doing this year! lol!

Caleb has finally decided that reading books is a good thing and that truly reading a book takes longer than 30 seconds:-),  so I'm hoping to find him some more good books at WeeRuns this year to help him stay occupied during the morning time while we do school. He likes the vintage Thomas the Tank Engine, but he only watches it to hear the opening song and then he doesn't care a lick about it! It is going to be an interesting year for sure, but I think it will be a good one! There are many changes that will be taking place this year in schooling and such so it will be a busy year! We'll just take each day as it comes and remember that on the hard days "this too shall pass":-)  And it does....all too quickly:-)

17 months old!

Fun time with Aunt Rosie!

"helping" Papa eat his dinner...lol!

Watching the geese at Nana's!

Mess making at Nana's house

Eating like a big boy at the folding table:-)

My goodness, time is just flying by with Caleb! He tries something new every day that it's getting hard to keep up with it!

His favorite thing to do is find a long stick of some sort (or anything in that case that resembles a stick) and chase his sisters around the house while growling like a lion!

His favorite food still seems to be his milk and watermelon...he can REALLY put away some watermelon!

His favorite words are ones that start with a "B" sound...bird, ball, bike, "beat up my sister, beat up my sister, beat up my sister..."lol, book, bed, bear, and so forth.

He does NOT like to be tickled. Period.

His favorite thing to wear are his army crocs and he puts them on when he gets up (he does put one on by himself:-) and does not want them taken off until bed.

He likes to read books except that I have not been able to master the skill of speed reading a book in less than 10 seconds. Any longer than that and he's ready to read a different book!! Boys sure do have short attention spans;-)

He would live outside if we let him and likes to splash his hands in his kiddie pool. He does not mind his hands getting wet, but woe unto you if you put him all the way in!! He HATES it! Likes baths, hates the pool. Strange, but oh well, Caleb is Caleb:-)

What a joy he has been, yet he's been our most difficult. Still wouldn't trade him though! God has something very special for him and it will be exciting to see him become the man that God wants him to be!

Healthy "Instant" Potatoes

Here they are! The potatoes are mostly dried. I had a few trays that I had to turn the potato "sheets" over to finish drying the other side, but I wanted to show you the ones I did get finished. I have to say that this is what I will be doing this fall instead of digging a root cellar:-)

The peeled/chopped potatoes are soaking in cold water with fresh squeezed lemon juice to preserve the whitish color of the potato.

Pot is ready for cooking! This is my largest stockpot filled to nearly the brim with chopped potatoes

Cooked and mashed potatoes spread on unbleached parchment paper and placed on the dehydrator trays

IT'S DONE!

Isn't this the coolest thing you've ever seen??!! lol!

Here are three trays all powdered up and ready for storage!

The first "half" of my new shelving my husband built me last night! There will be another section made tonight that attaches to this making it a double depth shelving system. We had a good laugh about this shelf  because when he brought it in the house it stood up all nice and straight all by itself!!!! It didn't fall apart or anything!! lol! My husband is NOT a carpenter so we were right proud of his "carpentry" skills....lol!!

Doesn't all that food just make you feel warm and "fallish" all over?? It does me!! I'm glad the first round of many to come is over, but this inspires me to be diligent and get all those shelves, and the ones to come, nice and full for winter! Three more bushels of corn to do this week before Saturday's market, so I'd better go get all my other work done...lol! Happy-Fall-is-around-the-corner-Day!